Erin Morgenstern Quotes

I think she's a witch," Marco says. "And I mean that in the most complimentary manner. ~ Erin Morgenstern

Wine is bottled poetry, he thinks [...] He wonders if the poem of the circus could possibly be bottled. ~ Erin Morgenstern

a paper star that has been unfolded and refolded
into a tiny unicorn but the unicorn remembers a time
when it was a star and an earlier time when it was part of
a book and sometimes the unicorn dreams of the time before
it was a book when it was a tree and the time even longer
before that when it was a different sort of star ~ Erin Morgenstern

When I was growing up, if there was a Young Adult section of my town's library, I missed it. I wandered right from 'The Babysitter's Club' over to Stephen King. His books were big and fat and they seemed important. I eventually worked my way through most of the shelf, but 'It' is the one that stuck with me. ~ Erin Morgenstern

I believe you have my umbrella he says, almost out of breath but wearing a grin that has too much wolf in it to be properly sheepish. ~ Erin Morgenstern

(The wind does not like to be confused. confusion ruins its sense of direction and direction is everything to the wind.) ~ Erin Morgenstern

Do you remember all of your audiences?" Marco asks.
"Not all of them," Celia says. "But I remember the people who look at me the way you do."
"What way might that be?"
"As though they cannot decide if they are afraid of me or they want to kiss me."
" I am not afraid of you," Marco says. ~ Erin Morgenstern

It is difficult to see a situation for what it is when you are in the midst of it," Tsukiko says. "It is too familiar. Too comfortable. ~ Erin Morgenstern

This is, in part, why there is less magic in the world today. Magic is secret and secrets are magic, after all, and years upon years of teaching and sharing magic and worse. Writing it down in fancy books that get all dusty with age has lessened it, removed its power bit by bit. ~ Erin Morgenstern

Secrets have power. And that power diminishes when they are shared, so they are best kept and kept well. Sharing secrets, real secrets, important ones, with even one other person, will change them. Writing them down is worse, because who can tell how many eyes might see them inscribed on paper, no matter how careful you might be with it. So it's really best to keep your secrets when you have them, for their own good, as well as yours. ~ Erin Morgenstern

He reads histories and mythologies and fairy tales, wondering why it seems that only girls are ever swept away from their mundane lives on farms by knights or princes or wolves. It strikes him as unfair to not have the same fanciful opportunity himself. And he is not in the position to do any rescuing of his own. ~ Erin Morgenstern

The man billed as Prospero the Enchanter receives a fair amount of correspondence via the theater office, but this is the first envelope addressed to him that contains a suicide note, and it is also the first to arrive carefully pinned to the coat of a five-year-old girl. ~ Erin Morgenstern

Secrets have power," Widget begins. "And that power diminishes when they are shared, so they are best kept and kept well. ~ Erin Morgenstern

I mean only that I hope they find darkness or paradise without fear of it, if they can. ~ Erin Morgenstern

... there is less magic in the world today. Magic is secret and secrets are magic, after all ... ~ Erin Morgenstern

Sharing secrets, real secrets, important ones, with even one other person, will change them. ~ Erin Morgenstern

I binge write. I think it's because I started seriously writing by participating in National Novel Writing Month, an online-based challenge to write 50,000 words in 30 days. ~ Erin Morgenstern

I'm an emotional sort of person in general and I have a vivid imagination, so I feel the whole spectrum of emotion strongly when I write. ~ Erin Morgenstern

I have absurdly vivid dreams. ~ Erin Morgenstern

Because I do not wish to know," he says. "I prefer to remain unenlightened, to better appreciate the dark. ~ Erin Morgenstern

Zachary picks up her glass of wine from the table and takes a sip of it. It tastes like winter sun and melting snow, bubbles bright and sharp and bursting.
There is a story here for each bubble in each bottle, in every glass in every sip.
And when the wine is gone the stories will remain. ~ Erin Morgenstern

It's lovely, the way wishes are added to it, by lighting candles with ones that are already lit and adding them to the branches. New wishes ignited by old wishes. ~ Erin Morgenstern

It bothers him most at times like this, in the bottom of the brandy bottle and the quiet of the night. ~ Erin Morgenstern

I don't always write in order, so composing multi-book stories could get complicated. ~ Erin Morgenstern

Even tiny empires fall. ~ Erin Morgenstern

A language you cannot speak yourself is not necessarily a god-awful mess, Celia says, transcribing a line of symbols into her notebook. ~ Erin Morgenstern

But I'm not special", Bailey says, "not the way they are. I'm not anyone important."
"I know", Celia said, "you are not destined or chosen. I wish I could tell you that you were if that would make it easier, but it is not true. You are in the right place, at the right time, and you care enough to do what needs to be done. Sometimes that is enough. ~ Erin Morgenstern

Whatever you wish to pay for a glimpse of your future," the fortune-teller says. Bailey stops to consider this for a moment. It is strange, but fair. ~ Erin Morgenstern

Now you know about it, and you can do whatever you want to it. ~ Erin Morgenstern

It takes the better part of those months for Herr Thiessen to complete the clock. He works on little else, though the sum of money involved makes the arrangement more than manageable. Weeks are spent on the design and the mechanics. He hires an assistant to complete some of the basic woodwork, but he takes care of all the details himself. Herr Thiessen loves details and he loves a challenge. He balances the entire design on that one specific word Mr. Barris used. Dreamlike.
The finished clock is resplendent. At first glance it is simply a clock, a rather large black clock with a white face and a silver pendulum. Well crafted, obviously, with intricately carved woodwork edges and a perfectly painted face, but just a clock.
But that is before it is wound. Before it begins to tick, the pendulum swinging steadily and evenly. Then, then it becomes something else.
The changes are slow. First, the color changes in the face, shifts from white to grey, and then there are clouds that float across it, disappearing when they reach the opposite side.
Meanwhile, bits of the body of the clock expand and contract, like pieces of a puzzle. As thought clock is falling apart, slowly and gracefully.
All of this takes hours.
The face of the clock becomes a darker grey, and then black, with twinkling stars where the numbers had been previously. The body of the clock, which has been methodically turning itself inside out and expanding, is now entirely subtle sha ~ Erin Morgenstern

My train was late that day. the day I saw you drop your notebook. Had it been on schedule we never would have met. Maybe we were never meant to. ~ Erin Morgenstern

„I forgive you for stealing my shawl."
She smiles as he laughs.
And then she vanishes. A simple trick of distracting his attention long enough to slip out through the hall, despite the lingering temptation to stay. ~ Erin Morgenstern

You can say anything with a Post-It.
I'm not entirely sure why that is.
Maybe the friendliness of the squares makes it easier. A square is nicely compact and less intimidating than a full page.
And they come in cheerful colors. Non-white paper is kind of inherently festive.
Or maybe paper that sticks feels more important than paper that can blow away.
(Though you can move them, if you need to put them somewhere else.)
They might not be as lasting as words carved in stone, but Post-It thoughts will stay.
For awhile, at least. ~ Erin Morgenstern

Can't make an egg without breaking a few metaphors. ~ Erin Morgenstern

She was only wrong by a little bit and a little bit wrong is mostly right ~ Erin Morgenstern

He spends the majority of the evening in the company of Celia Bowen, whose elaborate gown changes color, shifting through a rainbow of hues to compliment whoever she is closest to. ~ Erin Morgenstern

You cannot stop things. You can only be prepared for them to happen. ~ Erin Morgenstern

Wine is bottled poetry, he thinks. ~ Erin Morgenstern

That is a complicated matter. The heart of the tale and the ideas behind it are simple. Time has altered and condensed their nuances, made them more than story, greater than the sums of their parts. But that requires time. The truest tales require time and familiarity to become what they are. ~ Erin Morgenstern

Every element of the circus blends together in a wonderful coalescence. Acts that have been training in separate countries on separate continents now perform in adjacent tents, each part melding seamlessly into a whole. Each costume, each gesture, each sign on each tent is more perfect than the last. ~ Erin Morgenstern

Trespassers Will Be Exsanguinated. ~ Erin Morgenstern

There is a pirate in the basement.
(The pirate is a metaphor but also still a person.)
(The basement could rightly be considered a dungeon.)
The pirate was placed here for numerous acts of a piratey nature considered criminal enough for punishment by those non-pirates who decide such things.
Someone said to throw away the key, but the key rests on a tarnished ring on a book that hands on the wall nearby.
(Close enough to see from behind the bars. Freedom kept in sight but out of reach, left as a reminder to the prisoner. No one remembers that now on the key side of the bars. The careful psychological design forgotten, distilled into habit and convenience.)
(The pirate realizes this but withholds comment.) ~ Erin Morgenstern

Before you leave, the fortune teller reminds you that the future is never set in stone. ~ Erin Morgenstern

For a while I was looking for a person but I didn't find them and after that I was looking for myself. Now that I've found me I'm back to exploring, which is what I was doing in the first place before I was doing anything else and I think I was supposed to be exploring all along. ~ Erin Morgenstern

But who decides what the meaning is?" Zachary wonders aloud.
"The reader. The player. The audience. That's what you bring to it, even if you don't make the choices along the way, you decide what it means to you." The knitting girl pauses to catch a slipped stitch and then continues. "A game or a book that has meaning to me might be boring to you, or vice versa. Stories are personal, you relate or you don't. ~ Erin Morgenstern

For every tale carved in rock there are more inscribed on autumn leaves or woven into spiderwebs. ~ Erin Morgenstern

I have never lied, " Mr. Barris counters, standing as well. "I do not share what I am not at liberty to say. I gave my word and I intend to keep it but I have never lied to you. You never even asked me, you assumed I knew nothing. ~ Erin Morgenstern

A boy at the beginning of a story has no way of knowing that the story has begun. ~ Erin Morgenstern

Tucked in the back of one of the shelves is a small bottle, rounded with a short neck and closed with a matching glass stopper. He picks it up carefully. It is heavier than he had expected. Removing the stopper, he is confused, for at first the scent and the sensation do not change. Then comes the aroma of caramel, wafting on the crisp breeze of an autumn wind. The scent of wool and sweat makes him feel as though he is wearing a heavy coat, with the warmth of a scarf around his neck. There is the impression of people wearing masks. The smell of a bonfire mixes with the caramel. And then there is a shift, a movement in front of him. Something grey. A sharp pain in his chest. The sensation of falling. A sound like howling wind, or a screaming girl. ~ Erin Morgenstern

The Cloud Maze.
An Excursion in Dimension A Climb Though the Firmament; There Is No Beginning There Is No End
Enter Where You Please
Leave When You Wish
Have No Fear of Falling ~ Erin Morgenstern

I do not like being left in the dark. I am not particularly fond of believing in impossible things. ~ Erin Morgenstern

Tarot is just stories on cards. ~ Erin Morgenstern

We are such stuff As dreams are made on; and our little life Is rounded with a sleep. - PROSPERO, THE TEMPEST, ACT IV, SCENE 1 ~ Erin Morgenstern

He remembers when he was very small his mother once said she wished happiness and adventure for him. If this does not count as adventure, he is not sure what does. ~ Erin Morgenstern

The towering tents are striped in white and black, no golds and crimsons to be seen. No colour at all, save for the neighbouring trees and grass of the surrounding fields. Black-and-white stripes on grey sky; countless tents of varying shapes and sizes, with an elaborate wrought-iron fence encasing them in a colourless world. Even what little ground is visible from outside is black or white, painted or powdered, or treated with some other circus trick. ~ Erin Morgenstern

The night that seemed endless hours before is now slipping through your fingers, ticking by as it falls into the past and pushes you towards the future. ~ Erin Morgenstern

Our instructors do not understand how it is. To be bound to someone in such a way. They are too old, too out of touch with their emotions. They no longer remember what it is to live and breathe within the world. They think it simple to pit any two people against each other. It is never simple. The other person becomes how you define your life, how you define yourself. They become as necessary as breathing. Then they expect the victor to continue on without that. It would be like pulling the Murray twins apart and expecting them to be the same. They would be whole but not complete. ~ Erin Morgenstern

It's said that All Hallows' Eve is one of the nights when the veil between the worlds is thin - and whether you believe in such things or not, those roaming spirits probably believe in you, or at least acknowledge your existence, considering that it used to be their own. Even the air feels different on Halloween, autumn-crisp and bright. ~ Erin Morgenstern

Stories have changed, my dear boy," the man in the grey suit says, his voice almost imperceptibly sad. "There are no more battles between good and evil, no monsters to slay, no maidens in need of rescue. Most maidens are perfectly capable of rescuing themselves in my experience, at least the ones worth something, in any case. There are no longer simple tales with quests and beasts and happy endings. The quests lack clarity of goal or path. The beasts take different forms and are difficult to recognize for what they are. And there are never really endings, happy or otherwise. Things keep overlapping and blur, your story is part of your sister's story is part of many other stories, and there in no telling where any of them may lead. Good and evil are a great deal more complex than a princess and a dragon, or a wolf and a scarlet-clad little girl. And is not the dragon the hero of his own story? Is not the wolf simply acting as a wolf should act? Though perhaps it is a singular wolf who goes to such lengths as to dress as a grandmother to toy with its prey. ~ Erin Morgenstern

The pirate is a metaphor but also still a person. ~ Erin Morgenstern

But first, he thinks, he should get a mulled cider. It does not take him long to find the proper vendor in the courtyard. He pays for his cup, the steaming concoction contained in black-and-white marbled swirls, and wonders for a moment before his first sip if it won't taste as good as he remembers. He has recalled that taste countless times in his head, and despite the wealth of apples in the area, no cider with or without spices has ever tasted as good. He hesitates before taking the tiniest of sips. It tastes even better than he remembers. He ~ Erin Morgenstern

Writing in a near frenzy is wonderful and freeing, but for me, it did not result in a nice, shiny novel. Instead, what I have is a mess. ~ Erin Morgenstern

I feel 'The Night Circus' has a complete story arc in one book. I like it as a single volume. It feels complete to me, and I wouldn't want to stretch it out into something it's not. ~ Erin Morgenstern

Taking his time, as though he has all of it in the world, in the universe, from the days when tales meant more than they do now, but perhaps less than they will someday, he draws a breath that releases the tangled knot of words in his heart, and they fall from his lips effortlessly.
The circus arrives without warning. ~ Erin Morgenstern

You're in the right place at the right time, and you care enough to do what needs to be done. Sometimes that's enough. ~ Erin Morgenstern

Perhaps she herself is a page that was torn from a story and folded into a star and thrown in the shadows to be forgotten. Perhaps she should not steal books from hidden archives only to rip out their pages and then, give them away. But it is too late to change any of that now. And a beloved book is still beloved even if it was stolen to begin with. And imperfect. And then lost. ~ Erin Morgenstern

And there are never really endings, happy or otherwise. Things keep going on, they overlap and blur, your story is part of your sister's story is part of many other stories, and there is no telling where any of them may lead. ~ Erin Morgenstern

Follow your dreams, Bailey," she says. "Be they Harvard or something else entirely. No matter what that father of yours says, or how loudly he might say it. He forgets that he was someone's dream once, himself." Bailey ~ Erin Morgenstern

I have read for countless people on innumerable subjects and the most difficult thing to understand within the cards is always the timing. I knew that, and still it surprised me. How long I was willing to wait for something that was only a possibility. I always thought it was just a matter of time but I was wrong. ~ Erin Morgenstern

Celia endeavors to be as helpful as she can, which consists mainly of fetching cups of tea and finding new and creative ways to assure people everything will be fine. ~ Erin Morgenstern

There's magic in that. It's in the listener, and for each and every ear it will be different, and it will affect them in ways they can never predict. ~ Erin Morgenstern

It is too difficult to see a situation for what it is when you are in the midst of it. ~ Erin Morgenstern

Why haven't you asked me how I do my tricks?" Celia asks, once they have reached the point where she is certain he is not simply being polite about the matter. "Because I do not wish to know," he says. "I prefer to remain unenlightened, to better remain in the dark. ~ Erin Morgenstern

I made a wish on this tree years ago," Marco says.
"What did you wish for?" Bailey asks.
Marco leans forward and whispers in Bailey's ear. "I wished for her. ~ Erin Morgenstern

But he spends so much time in front of screens he has a near-compulsive need to let his eyeballs rest on paper. ~ Erin Morgenstern

There is a movement happening, a quiet one.
A low-profile, low-resolution revolution.
Comprised of writers and dreamers, of guerrilla artists and thought-ninjas.
Those with something to say.
They communicate through text inscribed on true public spaces, rather than blogs and forums.
Choosing fewer words, even without being bound by 140 character limits.
Using ink instead of pixels.
Sending messages in living, breathing space.
Pens scream louder into the void.
Even if permanent ink is not aptly named. ~ Erin Morgenstern

Gates Open at Nightfall & Close at Dawn in swirly lettering, and under that, in tiny plain letters: Trespassers Will Be Exsanguinated Bailey doesn't know what "exsanguinated" means, but he doesn't much like the sound of it. ~ Erin Morgenstern

I do not see as well without her. I do not hear as well without her. I do not feel as well without her. I would be better off without a hand or a leg than without my sister. ~ Erin Morgenstern

Only a single cat notices them in this moment and though the cat recognizes this mistake for what it is, it does not interfere. It is not the way of cats to interfere with fate. ~ Erin Morgenstern

The future is never set in stone. ~ Erin Morgenstern

I'm a firm believer that lighting affects mood, and twinkly lights on strings bring something magical to occasions ranging from concerts to weddings, though I'm fond of using them as year-round home decor. There's a reason why they're sometimes called fairy lights. When the night is right, there aren't any strings at all. ~ Erin Morgenstern

You're not wearing shoes."

"I hate shoes."

"Hate is a strong emotion for footwear," Zachary observes. ~ Erin Morgenstern

Everything is lit with glowing chandeliers and copious candles, so that the light is not bright but deep and warm and bubbling. ~ Erin Morgenstern

We must put effort and energy into anything we wish to change. ~ Erin Morgenstern

There is so much that glows in the circus, from flames to lanterns to stars. I have heard the expression "trick of the light" applied to sights within Le Cirque des Reves so frequently that I sometimes suspect the entirety of the circus is itself a complex illusion of illumination" . ~ Erin Morgenstern

The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. ~ Erin Morgenstern

She has gathered that the man in the grey suit whom her father called Alexander also has a student, and there will be some sort of game.
"Like chess?" she asks once.
"No," her father says. "Not like chess. ~ Erin Morgenstern

As he watches her in the flickering light, it strikes Bailey suddenly that she is a fair deal older than she appears, and that the same is likely true of Marco. It is like realizing someone in a photograph is no longer the same age as they were when it was taken, and they seem farther away because of it. ~ Erin Morgenstern

There are no longer simple tales with quests and beasts and happy endings. The quests lack clarity of goal or path. The beasts take different forms and are difficult to recognize for what they are. And there are never really endings, happy or otherwise. Things ~ Erin Morgenstern

Do you ever think about how many stories are out there?' she asks, placing a finger on the glass. 'How many dramas are unfolding around us right at this very moment? I wonder how long a book you would need to record them. You'd probably need an entire library to hold a single evening in Manhattan. An hour. A minute. ~ Erin Morgenstern

I think I get some of my love of adult books that can be fun from Douglas Adams. ~ Erin Morgenstern

Time passes. Things change. ~ Erin Morgenstern

He will always choose the circus. ~ Erin Morgenstern

Far beneath the surface of the earth, hidden from the sun and the moon, upon the shores of the Starless Sea, there is a labyrinthine collection of tunnels and rooms filled with stories. Stories written in books and sealed in jars and painted on walls. Odes inscribed onto skin and pressed into rose petals. Tales laid in tiles upon the floors, bits of plot worn away by passing feet. Legends carved in crystal and hung from chandeliers. Stories catalogued and cared for and revered. Old stories preserved while new stories spring up around them. ~ Erin Morgenstern

As you walk farther into the room it becomes a field of endless streetlamps, the stripes repeating in fractal patterns, over and over and over. ~ Erin Morgenstern

The funeral is a quiet one, despite the number of mourners present. There are no sobs or flailing handkerchiefs. There is a smattering of color amongst the sea of traditional black. Even the light rain cannot push it down into the realms of despair. It rests instead in a space of thoughtful melancholy. ~ Erin Morgenstern

It arrived only a few days ago and is still a novelty. Had it been present for longer, Caroline likely would have chosen a different dare, but the circus is currently the talk of the town, and Caroline likes to keep her dares en vogue. ~ Erin Morgenstern

Don't you want to know my name?" the boy asks.
"Names are not of nearly as much import as people like to suppose," the man in the grey suit says. "A label assigned to identify you either by this institution or your departed parents is neither of interest nor value to me. If you find you are in need of a name at any point, you may choose one for yourself. For now it will not be necessary. ~ Erin Morgenstern

Something about the circus stirs their souls, and they ache for it when it is absent. ~ Erin Morgenstern

He wishes he had brought the wine-colored book with him, but he is trying to make a point of not having his nose constantly in a book. It is an attempt to appear friendlier that he's not certain is working yet. ~ Erin Morgenstern